Body, Mind, Soul
by Cypherial
Summary: Neo manages to trap Yang and take her prisoner, Yang tries to stay alive long enough to escape. Despite the torture and agony, Yang begins to sympathise with her captor... Slight AU takes place well after the events of Vol.2, and assumes Vol. 3 never happened. Also, very explicit M for torture, language, suggestive content, etc
1. Prologue

Yang Xiao Long burst through the front door of the building with a single blast from Ember Celica. She was frantic with worry, after not seeing or hearing from Ruby for over two weeks and suddenly getting an urgent SOS. However, in an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous setting, her trained sense of caution as a Huntress kicked in.

"Ruby?" she called out tentatively, "Where are you?" She waited a minute for any type of sound. It wasn't long before she heard something. After a few seconds of listening, she identified it as scared noises. _Ruby!_ She bolted into the house, searching for her scared little sister. The sound was coming from the living room, so that was the first place she headed.

/

"Ruby?" A voice called out into the abandoned house. "Where are you?"

Neo grinned evilly. _Finally._ She'd been waiting for hours since she sent that fake SOS. Now she'd finally get to have an uninterrupted rematch with her rival, Yang Xiao Long. _A little subterfuge shouldn't hurt..._

She sat in the middle of the room, on a chair, and imagined her disguise. She focused on the colours, red and black. Then the clothes: a black combat skirt with a red hem, black tights, black boots with red soles... then the body. Slightly taller, innocent face, silver eyes, short black hair with faded red tips...

The pinks and browns and whites of her usual colour scheme faded away, and were replaced with what she could see in her mind's eye. To anybody who happened to gaze upon her, she was merely Ruby Rose, albeit in appearance only. It didn't have to be perfect; just good enough to where it'd be able to trick Yang from a short distance in low light.

Next, she put her hands behind her back and imagined tape around her wrists and ankles, looking like she was secured to the chair. For a finishing touch, she imagined a scarf tied around her mouth.

To complete the act, she started making noises. Scared moans and screams, muffled by the "gag". _Perfect. Trap set, bait is out...now we wait._

/

As Yang ran into the room, what she saw made her stop in her tracks. Her little sister, bound and gagged to a chair, looking scared, struggling to get free. Yang's protective side shifted into gear, rushing to help her sister.

"Ruby, thank God you're alright! What happened? Who did this?" As she reached for the tape, she stopped. Something wasn't right. Why couldn't she grab the tape?

Ruby's arm shifted. _Wha—_

A fist impacted the side of Yang's face. Stunned, she reeled back. After regaining her senses, she looked back at the chair. Empty, but Ruby was leaning next to it, smiling. Grinning. The gag was gone too.

Yang's eyes shifted from lavender to red. "You're..not Ruby."

The grin on the impostor's face got wider. Yang bared her teeth. "Who are you and what have you done to my sister?" she growled.

Neo cocked her head to the side, still unsure if she wanted to drop the disguise now or play with it a little longer. She decided to have a little fun. She blinked, willing her disguised silver eyes to change back to her pink/brown colour scheme, then back again.

Predictably, Yang roared in rage and charged, delivering a haymaker, which Neo swiftly dodged, following up with a left hook. The punch curved downwards and impacted the floor, coupled with a blast from the brawler's gauntlet. Neo jumped into the air and flipped backwards, willing her disguise to disappear. Gone was the guise of Ruby Rose, replaced with Neo's true appearance.

Yang stopped, recognition in her now-lavender eyes. Neo smiled. Now her opponent knew who she was dealing with.

Yang forced herself to remain composed. This pint-sized woman had gotten the better of her before, and she was not going to let that happen again. Neopolitan was going down this time. Looking her over with calm eyes (she needed to remember to thank Ruby for that lesson), she began sizing her up.

Neo patiently waited for her adversary to finish assessing her. She smirked. _If you haven't noticed by now, you never will, Blondie._ She wanted to make this as much of a "fair" duel as possible. It wasn't often that she faced an opponent whom she respected in terms of battle skill. Contrary to what other people thought, Neo wasn't a psychotic killer, and she certainly wasn't a dainty little damsel.

Yang stepped forward with her left foot. Years of fighting experience told Neo that leading with the left foot meant an incoming attack with the right arm. She shifted her weight onto her left leg, ready to jump. If Yang attacked with a normal punch, she'd easily dodge it, but it was the blast from Ember Celica that was the most worrying. Splash damage could hinder her movement slightly.

Yang looked to her right, Neo's left, further cementing Neo's strategy. An attack from the left, easily dodged, followed by a brawler's standard one-two. In which case, Neo's counter would be to quickly strike the pressure points on Yang's arms. Her dexterity allowed her to move relatively fast in comparison to Yang's slow, brutish boxer-style.

It happened in a flash. The right side of Neo's face erupted in pain. The sudden impact left her reeling. _Shit!_ Neo quickly regained herself and jumped back. Slightly dazed, she tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Yang let out a satisfied grunt. Her ploy had worked. Her left jab had left Neo stunned. She jerked her head to the side, feeling the satisfying _crack_ of her own neck. "Alright, Ice Cream, let's see what you've got."

Neo slowly brought her hand up to her face. She felt something wet. The corner of her mouth was bleeding. Wiping the blood away, she smiled, twisting into an evil grin. Bending down to retrieve her parasol, she inwardly cursed herself for being led. Yang had learned from their last encounter, and it wouldn't be as easy to provoke her this time. Still, Neo had faced worse opponents while she was at her most vulnerable, and managed to come out on top. She adopted a defensive fighting stance and waited for Yang to make her next move.

 _This is going to be a very interesting fight, Blondie._

/

Below her, on the ground, the nearly-unconscious Yang moaned in pain. She had been bested (utterly beaten, really) and was bracing herself for death. Neo smirked and blinked, causing her mismatched pink and brown eyes to swap. The blonde brawler was definitely a challenge for her, but she'd been so _clumsy_ at fighting the first time they traded blows. She counted this as the second time they'd dueled like this, and the second time she had beaten the brawler. Yang closed her eyes and drifted off. Seeing this, Neo licked her lips as she drew and raised her misericorde to deliver the killing blow.

Something changed her mind. She hesitated. Maybe she could use the blondie. Her skills with fighting were definitely a force to be reckoned with, sure, but they could also be a valuable asset. Roman had always told her to look for assets even in the enemy. Yang Xiao Long was _definitely_ someone whose fighting talent could be useful. Upon that decision, she lowered and sheathed the misericorde inside her parasol.

With effort, Neo dragged the unconscious blonde into the van. Taking care to remove Yang's gauntlets and bind her hands and feet, she sighed. _Honestly,_ she had to admit, _Yang had style._ Her fighting techniques, while brutish in origin, had proven to be effective against the usual opponents. A slow _tsk-tsk_ escaped her lips. _If the enemy's stronger than you, there's always another way to beat them, kiddo. Remember that._ Roman's voice came unbidden to her mind.

 _Roman._

Neo didn't know where her partner-in-crime was. He'd just disappeared after breaking out of the Atlesian prison. Cinder was nowhere to be found either, though that was to be expected. Neo hated Cinder. The way she'd strutted her way into Roman's heart, took him away from her with seductive words... Everything was fine just the way it way, before that witch came into their lives. She shuddered. _I hope she's dead,_ she thought.

Pulling her mind back to the present, she had work to do. In the back of the van, Yang stirred slightly. Neo thought it'd be a good idea to gag her as well. Visual illusions she could handle, but try as she might, noises were a dead giveaway, and she didn't want to take the risk of some nosy Atlas MP discovering her because Blondie decided to wake up and make a ruckus. She quickly put some duct tape over Yang's mouth and climbed into the driver's seat. With the click of the alternator, the van came to life, and she sped away in the direction of her safehouse.

"First, your body," Neo said, half to herself, half to the unconscious Yang. Her own voice came out in a hoarse whisper, the product of an accident in her childhood that caused a large fire and scorched her throat and lungs. "Then your mind, and finally, your soul."


	2. Body I

_**A/N: This is where the torture starts, and I'm going to be very detailed from now on. Viewer discretion is advised.**_

Yang awoke with a start in a dimly lit room. All she could think about was that every part of her body ached. Remembering the fight with Neo, she grimaced. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was Neo standing over her. She tried to dull the pain with some of her Aura, to no avail. _My Aura's too low..._ She closed her eyes, accepting the pain. It brought back memories from her childhood, before she had learned to control her Aura. She used to brawl with the other kids in school, much to her father's chagrin.

Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she remembered memories past the happy ones. She tried to wipe them away...

 _What the hell...?_ She couldn't move. Looking down, she saw restraints on her wrists, bolting her to a table. Looking further down, she saw the same restraints on her ankles as well. Remembering what had happened prior, she struggled with all her might to break free from the restraints.

"Ah, you're awake," a familiar voice, raspy and hoarse, sang out. "Good, let's get started."

"Oh dear..." Neo said, coming into Yang's field of vision, taking the narrow elongated knife out from her parasol. "Poor girl, you think you can break free? That's so cute..."

"Let me GO, you sadistic bitch!" Yang roared, her eyes turning red, but no Aura to back that temper up. Neo smiled evilly, and slashed at Yang's midsection.

/

Many years before, Roman had run with quite a few gangs as little more than a mercenary or hired brains. Neo had been a small girl, but thanks to his guidance, she'd gained invaluable skills for an urchin to have. The most prudent of which being: how to torture. One of Roman's favourite sayings during that time was "Mind, body, soul."

When Neo asked what he meant by that, he explained: "See, kiddo, it's like this. People can be broken very, very easily. Even men like me. The key to breaking a man is to attack their life. Physical torture, ha! That's just the start of it. In order to break someone, you must first attack their body. Usually, they'll beg and beg and beg for you to stop. But when their body breaks, then you attack their mind. Usually by this point, they'll have given you nearly all the information you'd have wanted and then some, but if you wanted to _truly_ break them, then next you go after their soul. That's how you can turn them over.

There are several ways to break someone's soul, and I don't care to list them off in present company. Honestly, I hope you never come to that point, kid. But it's there, if you ever need it."

/

Neo gleefully hacked away at Yang's body, leaving shallow, but incredibly painful, gashes all over. The chest, stomach, arms, legs... Neo was swinging her misericorde seemingly without a care, yet actually being very methodical in where she struck. Every cut was in a non-fatal spot, and was cut with such precision that it took a few seconds for blood to spill out of them. The sounds of Yang's screaming voice was like music to her ears.

Yang's clothes were in tatters. Her stomach and torso were a bloody mess. Yet, the wounds were beginning to heal themselves.

"Ah, your Aura's returned." Neo observed.

Seething with pain and rage, Yang growled, "When I get out of here, I'm going to FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Tsk tsk," Neo chided. "That's no way to talk to your Mistress, now is it?" She waved the knife an inch from Yang's face. Yang recoiled in fear.

"Let's get one thing straight, Blondie. You're here for my amusement. I can kill you any time I like." She demonstrated this by methodically cutting along three of the already-healing gashes, reopening the wounds and spilling more blood. She brought the knife up to her lips and licked the blood off. Yang's eyes flickered between red and lavender. _Good. She's losing control over her Semblence..._

Yang was done screaming. She wasn't going to give this psycho any more satisfaction. Right now, she needed to concentrate on blood loss. With what little Aura she had regained, she directed it to the more prominent of the many gashes crisscrossing her body.

"Now, you will do as I say so I don't have to..." Neo lightly danced her blade along Yang's cheek, "...mark this pretty face again. Hmm?"

"What do you want from me?" Yang cried out. "Revenge?"

"Nothing so trivial as that. I just want to break you." Neo laughed, giggling at first, then building into gradual manic laughter. _Perfect, she thinks I'm just a crazy bitch._ Neo sheathed the long, narrow knife inside her parasol, then produced a scalpel from the pocket of her cargo pants. Running her finger along the blade (quite sharp, as it sliced her finger open easily), she locked eyes with Yang, whose eyes widened in fear as she realised what was about to happen.

"So, Blondie, where do ya want it?" Neo twirled the knife between her bleeding fingers, more for dramatic effect than anything, as her Aura began to heal her finger.

"Fuck you, psycho!" Yang struggled against her restraints, again to no avail. A low hiss escaped her lips as she tried and failed to escape her bonds. "Let me go!"

"I did warn you..." Neo said in a singsong tone, before bringing the scalpel to Yang's face and slicing her chin. Yang howled in agony, and tried to twist away from the blade. "Uh-uh, Yang. I wouldn't move if I were you. I shudder to think what you might lose if my hand just...slips," she brought the knife up to Yang's eye level, "You wouldn't look so pretty with an eyepatch, I bet..."

Yang forced herself to stay perfectly still while Neo danced the blade along her face. It was true, she didn't want to lose an eye, and she certainly didn't want her face to be cut again. Through the searing agony, her mind whirled. _Why can't I break these restraints? From all I've endured, my Semblance should allow me to-_

"In case you still haven't figured it out by now, I'll go ahead and tell you. These aren't normal restraints. They drain Aura," Neo giggled mockingly. "I know about your Semblance. How much of a masochist must you be, I wonder, to have an ability that makes you stronger the more punishment your body takes?"

Blood dripped down from the gash on Yang's chin, barely staunched from her ever-dwindling Aura. Every part of her body hurt. Her chest and torso were a bloody mess of criss-crossing gashes and marks. Her arms were marked up and down, though the bleeding had already stopped.

"See, I left you just enough Aura to clot the wounds. I don't want you to bleed out before I've had my fun, Yang."

Yang's head hung low. Her strength was dwindling almost as fast as her Aura. The blood loss was beginning to get to her; she could feel herself being beckoned into unconsciousness. The world around her spun, Neo's gloating voice became distant, and gradually, she could hear, nor see, no more.


End file.
